Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to ballast weight systems for a work vehicle, and more particularly to a self-mounting ballast weight system.
Description of Related Art
Off-road work vehicles, including agricultural tractors, often need to add front-end weights or ballast to the vehicle to improve balance, stability, or traction. As tractor power and the horsepower-to-weight ratio have increased over the years, the problem of attaching ballast to tractors has become more pronounced since the amount of ballast required for some operations can be thousands of pounds.
Most often, additional ballast options for tractors require manual removal of the weight, or an additional vehicle or hoist mechanism to lift the weight on or off the weighted vehicle. This requires that a tractor be driven to wherever the hoist is located, which is time consuming, especially if the tractor is in a remote area when it becomes necessary to add ballast.
It would be desirable to have a system that does not need to manually lift the weights or use a second vehicle or external lifting system to install the weight.